Tommy Redmond Hicks Movies
- 2003
- Add The Blues: Warming by the Devil's Fire to QueueAdd The Blues: Warming by the Devil's Fire to top of Queue
Part of The Blues documentary film series on PBS, Warming by the Devil's Fire is written and directed by Charles Burnett and narrated by Carl Lumbly. This installment explores the tension between the gospel and the blues through the semi-autobiographic tale of a young boy (played by Nathaniel Lee Jr.) who is kidnapped by his blues-loving Uncle Buddy (Tommy Hicks) right before he's about to be saved. Burnett investigates some of the blues women who defied the church by singing racy songs, like Lucille Bogan, Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith. Includes archival performances by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Reverend Gary Davis, blues performers who managed to work within the church's jurisdiction. Burnett also discusses his fascination with W.C. Handy and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Warming by the Devil's Fire was originally broadcast by PBS on October 1, 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Redmond Hicks, Nathaniel Lee, (more)
- 1996
George (Jason Alexander) is worried that the lawyer for the Susan Ross Foundation thinks he murdered Susan; and later, George has trouble with a "faulty" tape recorder. Kramer (Michael Richards) consults Newman (Wayne Knight) when he falls in love with Jerry's (Jerry Seinfeld) new girlfriend, Pam (Kim Myers). And when Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) announces she doesn't want to become a mother, she starts the ball rolling for a series of planned vasectomies, beginning with her boyfriend and ending with...Newman? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
Quick is based on a series of adventure novels featuring a gorgeous hitwoman. When the title character, played by Teri Polo, is set up by her boss, she takes -- well -- quick action. Abducting the mob witness (Martin Donovan) whom she'd been hired to kill, Quick runs off to parts unknown. As the evil henchmen (Jeff Fahey, on the verge of better parts, and Robert Davi) close in, Quick decides to befriend her captive and entreat his aid. Tia Carrere also appears in this explosive actioner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Fahey, Teri Polo, (more)
In this epic Ron Howard film, Joseph Donelly (Tom Cruise) is an impoverished 19th-century Irish tenant farmer who has recently lost both his father and his home to the agents of his unscrupulous landlord. On a mission to avenge his family's injustice at the hands of the ruthless land baron Joseph meets the landlord's daughter and the two run off to America together where the girl expects to claim a piece of land for herself in the Oklahoma Land Rush. After she is robbed on the boat that carries them to America, they arrive with nary a penny and struggle just to keep their heads above water in the slums of Boston. After a series of serious set-backs they do eventually work their way out West, where Joseph must fight to realize his dream and claim a piece of the American Dream for himself -- and where they finally acknowledge their love for each other. Shot in wide-screen Panavision, the movie was filmed on-location in Ireland and Montana. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, (more)
Loosely based on the life and times of several R&B artists (The Dells, The Temptations, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others) The Five Heartbeats traces the rise and fall of a popular African-American 1950s singing aggregation. The story is told from the point of view of one of the "Heartbeats," played by Robert Townsend (who also co-produced, directed and co-wrote the script with Keenan Ivory Waynans). The film is an amalgam of anecdotes drawn from real-life experiences: the long struggle upward, the first rush of success, the dishonest record-company executives, the hard-nosed but nurturing managers, the sex, the drugs, the isolation and the precipitous downward slide. The film begins and ends in the 1990s, as the middle-aged "Duck" (Townsend) ruminates on the past and makes the best of the present. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, (more)
- 1991
- R
In this fast-paced, noirish road movie, a computer expert embezzles half a million dollars and races off to Reno to start anew. Unfortunately, en route, he picks up a pair of hitchers and ends up entangled with a crazed couple who commandeer his car and leave him alone in the desert to die. As soon as he can, he hits the road to get revenge and to find his money before they do. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Metzler, Jennifer Rubin, (more)
Spike Lee's breakthrough independent feature, shot in fifteen days on a budget of $175,000, ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites. Lee's slight tale, which carries much psychological and historical baggage, concerns Nola Darling (Tracy Camila Johns), a young, self-assured Brooklyn woman who juggles three boyfriends -- the polite and well-meaning Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), the self-obsessed male model Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), and the comical bicycle messenger Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee). Nola doesn't want to commit to any of her boyfriends, cherishing her personal freedom. But as their relationships with Nola grow, each man wants her for himself. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, (more)
